ABORTION/BUDGET/PLANNED PARENTHOOD/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s sweeping changes to federal family planning policy may not hit anywhere harder than Utah, which has $2 million at stake and would be hard pressed to Planned Parenthood if the organization makes good on a threat to pull out of the state rather than operate under the new rules…The situation illustrates how conservative-driven changes that would ban federal funding for clinics that provide abortion referrals could hurt even deep red states that have themselves been at odds with Planned Parenthood. Trump administration officials and anti-abortion advocacy groups insist that Planned Parenthood can easily be replaced with providers that don’t offer abortions or abortion referrals, and they say the new rules are needed to ensure tax dollars aren’t inadvertently subsidizing abortion providers. But Planned Parenthood serves an estimated 40 percent of the more than four million patients nationwide who receive care under the Title X program — and more than half of those in states such as Utah, Wisconsin and Ohio. It is a primary recipient of Title X grants in a dozen states and receives Title X money from grantees in many others, collecting as much as $60 million a year from the program.”
–Alice Miranda Ollstein and Rachel Roubein, “States struggle to replace Planned Parenthood as Trump rules loom,” Politico, March 29, 2019 10:27 am